A less abrupt ending
by QueenT37
Summary: I always thought the last book ended too suddenly, so I wrote a less abrupt one.


Emily didn't run to meet Teddy. Spending so much time with elderly maiden aunts had given her a little more dignity than that. But she didn't linger and her graceful walk was quicker than it had been for a long time. He came to meet her and suddenly they were shy and a little unsure. It had been a year since the wedding that didn't happen and they hadn't been in contact at all during that time. As they gazed at each other, full of anticipation, Teddy made the first move and dragged her into a close embrace, crushing her against him in the soft moonlight. Emily had half a moment to hope with horror that her aunts would not glance out of the window, before Teddy's scent enveloped her and she wrapped her arms around him and clung to him as hard as she could. It felt so right; she felt so at home and at peace that she suddenly couldn't believe she had managed to live for so long without it, without him. After a minute they released each other and went back to staring. Teddy wiped two tears off her cheek and then kissed her gently on the lips, the kiss he had thought about so many times, ever since they were young teenagers together. Emily leaned towards him, prolonging it and then they regretfully drew back. Surely something needed to be said. Teddy said it.

"Marry me?" Emily smiled her slow smile, which had not changed very much since she was 11, but now held a distinct amount of seduction in it, and raised one arch eyebrow.

"I guess so," she said. The words themselves might not have given Teddy much confidence but the look she gave him almost stopped his heart and he had no choice but to kiss her again and then again. Emily shivered with the delight of it all and felt that that moment made up for all the terrible moments and hours of pain she had gone through over Teddy. As they walked hand in hand along the lane from the house, shadows seeming like dear friends and moonlight kissing them gently as they wandered, they talked. All the misunderstandings, all the heartaches, all the lost opportunities were talked over and ceased to cause either of them pain as they exorcised them. By the end of the evening their youthful faces glowed with renewed energy and joy at life. By the time they felt they had talked through everything they needed to it was just striking half past midnight on the kitchen clock. The idea of parting for the night was almost too much to bear and Emily clung to his hand, afraid that if she let him leave her heart would break. Even the Murray part of her did not scoff at such an overreaction to a few hours apart. Teddy would never have dared suggest it, not at conventional, traditional New Moon, but Emily didn't give him very much say in the matter, and with a finger to his lips pulled him quietly through the door and up to her room. Teddy stared appalled at her, not even able to imagine how a meeting with Aunt Elizabeth would go down. But Emily had had enough loneliness and wasn't thinking particularly straight. In her room she shut the door gently and pulled him down onto the bed. And they held each other, extending that first embrace in the garden, moving onto the bed to make themselves more comfortable, until they both drifted into a peaceful, blissful sleep. 

Just before dawn they awoke and slipped downstairs to the kitchen where they were found innocently sitting at the table, drinking tea and acting thoroughly as though Teddy had just been passing by and decided to pop by for a chat. But as the rest of the household bustled round them, entirely oblivious that the entire world had undergone a monumental change since the evening before, they caught each other's eyes every now and then and Emily could hardly stop herself from shouting in joy. They would tell the good folk of the house later. For now it was enough to exchange significant glances and have the delight of secrets that only they two shared, and to feel the gentle pressure of Teddy's foot against hers under the table.


End file.
